The Big Fat Greek Lie Is Now Obvious to Spain... So Who's Next to Default?

[Owlet]

"Anyone who thinks that Greece is better off, let alone "saved" is out of their(sic) minds. The Euro may have been saved for a few more weeks/ months. But Greece is in worse shape than ever.

Indeed, if anything, the Greek situation has made it clear that the whole "give up fiscal sovereignty and implement austerity measures in exchange for bailouts" formula is a waste of time and money. Let's take a look at the progression here.

1)   Greece claims it doesn't need a bailout at all (January 2010-March 2010)
2)   Greece begins to ask for a bailout (April-May 2010)
3)   Greece gets a bailout equal to 57% of its GDP (May 2010)
4)   Greece posts a GDP of -4% in 2010
5)   Greece announces it won't be able to meet budget requirements/ payback the first bailout on time and asks for an extension (January-February 2011)
6)   Greece asks for another extension (May 2011)
7)   Talk of Second Greek Bailout begins (July -October 2011)
8)   Greece posts a GDP of -6.5% in 2011
9)   Second Greek bailout announced/ finalized (February/March 2012)
10) Talk of third Greek bailout begins (March 2012)
No other EU country could look at this progression and think "this looks like a good approach." Indeed, Spain and Italy must be watching what's happening in Greece and asking themselves whether they want to go through this whole process of negotiating for bailouts via austerity measures."

http://gainspainscapital.com/

[DCBob]

1. The author of this is Graham Summers, Chief Market Strategist for Phoenix Capital Research.

Just an FYI.

[dipsydoodle]

2. They should all read David Copperfield

and heed Mr Micawber's words of advice.

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

[DFW]

3. Spain didn't have Goldman Sachs cook their books to join the Euro

Greece did.

I've been in Spain a couple of times this past month, but I haven't been getting a balanced picture,
since I've only been back in Barcelona, where I used to live once upon a time. Even back then, and
I'm talking decades ago, people from all other parts of Spain were coming to Barcelona to look for work.
The situation in Barcelona didn't look so bad, so that must mean the rest of Spain is really hurting.
Like they say, "Barcelona ès bona si la bolsa sona."